Geelong beat Lions in the wet at the Gabbatoir

GEELONG has rained on Brisbane's 100-game celebrations for midfielders Daniel Rich and Jack Redden, scoring a hard-fought 25-point win against the Lions on a sodden Gabba yesterday.

Ensuring the 200-game milestone for their own star defender Andrew Mackie ended the right way, the Cats led at every change to run out winners 13.15 (93) to 10.8 (68).

As it did against Hawthorn in round one, Brisbane battled extremely hard, but just lacked the class to go with one of the better teams in the competition.

New Lions coach Justin Leppitsch, going head-to-head with former premiership teammate and Geelong mentor Chris Scott for the first time, was happy with the efforts of his players, but reminded them good teams were able to sustain pressure for the entire match.

"Mature teams don't make mistakes when it matters," Leppitsch said. "I said to the boys when you play preliminary final teams you've got to go for four quarters."

As they did in round one against Adelaide, captain Joel Selwood (26 disposals and 13 clearances) and Steve Johnson (37 and 10 tackles) led the way for the Cats. Travis Varcoe also stood out in the greasy conditions, finishing with 16 disposals, two goals and 10 tackles.

Pearce Hanley was busy in defence for Brisbane with 32 touches, Dayne Zorko had 30 and eight tackles and young gun Sam Mayes finished with four goals.